The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the Sixth Review of Sri Lanka’s economic performance under the program supported by an extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) recently.
The completion of the Sixth review, upon the granting of a waiver of non-observance for the end-June 2019 performance criterion on the primary balance, enables the disbursement of SDR 118.5 million (about US$164 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 952.23 million (about US$1.31 billion).
Sri Lanka’s extended arrangement was approved on June 3, 2016, in the amount of about SDR 1.1 billion (US$1.5 billion, or 185 percent of quota in the IMF at that time of approval of the arrangement.). On May 13, 2019, the Executive Board approved rephasing of remaining disbursements in the form of an extension of the arrangement by one additional year, until June 2020. To Page v
Under the reform agenda of Sri Lanka, line agencies conducted number of reforms during the year.
The “e-RoC project” of the Department of Registrar of Companies was a notable one as Business Registration has become an e-Service and it is connected with Inland Revenue Department creating a single window enabling the applicants to obtain the TIN at the business registration point.
The Department of Labor will also be connected to the system during the year enabling the applicant to obtain EPF number at the same time.
The Department of Registrar of Companies also amended the section 9 (1) of the Companies Act removing the burden of publishing a public notice by the applicant.
Registrar General’s Department also introduced a one day service for deed registration in March 2019.
The Urban Development Authority completed and launched an online system to process constructions permits. A New Secured Transaction Bill is now at the Parliament for approval. The Department of Customs provides e-payment facilities and digital signatures to facilitate the Trade.
Further, most of the Category ‘A’ commitments under the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement has been completed by border agencies engaged in international trade.
An Official Receiver was appointed by the government under the Companies Act who serves as the liquidator of last resort and the regulator of insolvency proceedings.
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